Problem Within

The state government has made it clear that there will be no relaxation on the LPG cap unless it gets some kind of financial support from the Centre, chances of which seem quite bleak. The announcement would hardly surprise anybody as both Chief Minister as well as Finance Minister, on several occasions, maintained that providing additional subsidized LPG cylinders by the state government would cost it an unbearable Rs 225 crore burden. Amid a lot of cacophony on the LPG issue in the state, what is, however, being lost sight of is that the government has miserably failed to do its bit. While it has unsuccessfully sought to use its good offices at New Delhi to seek some relaxation on LPG cap for J&K, not much attention has it paid to the things that very well fall within its competence. The state government, for example, has yet to come up with an order to the LPG dealers/oil companies operating in the state— particularly those in the Valley, to open up additional counters at different places coming under their operational jurisdiction, to ease and expedite the job of verification and distribution of gas among the consumers. If the LPG consumers are presently facing severe problems in Kashmir, it is more because of the little number of dealers and absence of commodity in the market than due to the cap put on the number of subsidized cylinders. It is this sorry state of affairs that has evoked the attention of the High Court prompting it to step in and issue a direction to the state government asking for submission of dealer-consumer ratio. Instead of losing its energy on pursuing a gone case— enhancement in the number of subsidized cylinders, the state government would be better counseled to take up the shortage of gas directly with the oil companies. Cap or no cap, Kashmir is facing a shortage of 6000 gas cylinders per day. It is this issue

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Ravi Canal Project

AKSHAY AZAD

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TARIQ NAQASH

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